This is a resubmission of a competing continuation of the K24 Midcareer Investigator Award to Dr. Sharon Inouye. Goals during the initial award period were to expand patient-oriented research on aging at Yale through the research project, designed to examine cost-effectiveness and long-term outcomes of the Delirium Prevention Trial, and through establishing the Yale Mentorship Program in Patient-Oriented Research on Aging (YMP-PORA). The research project was successfully completed, and YMP-PORA was established with 30 mentees enrolled to date. The continuation award is critical to protect Dr. Inouye's time to allow her to continue to make significant contributions towards patient-oriented research on aging and to expand the successful mentorship program to provide training to a new generation of clinical researchers. For the research projects, 2 candidate projects and 3 mentee projects are presented as examples. The K24 will be used to solely to support the research of new mentees enrolled in the program. The objective of Candidate Project 1 is to develop and validate a predictive model for persistent delirium at hospital discharge in older persons. The objective of Candidate Project 2 is to examine caregiver burden and costs associated with delirium in a one-year period post-discharge. In Mentee Project 1, the aims are to identify leading drugs associated with the highest risk of persistent delirium post-ICU discharge. The objective of Mentee Project 2 is to examine the effectiveness of a computer-based intervention on reducing prescription of sedative hypnotic drugs in hospitalized older persons. The objectives of Mentee Project 3 are to determine the rate of abnormal findings on brain computed tomography scans, and to evaluate how often these abnormal findings influence subsequent treatment. All of these projects are intended to refine research skills of the candidate and the mentees, and to develop new directions for patient-oriented research on aging at Yale. For the Mentorship Program, the objectives are: 1) to expand the program to serve more mentees across disciplines and involving more mentors; 2) to develop more rigorous coursework with the possibility of advanced degrees (M.S. or Ph.D.); 3) to provide a formalized research infrastructure with research assistant and biostatistical support for mentees; and 4) to enhance patient-oriented research on aging more broadly at Yale in an ongoing way. Thus, continuation of the K24 award to this outstanding candidate and the successful program she has created will yield long-term benefits that will extend beyond the renewal period.
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